Monday, February 28, 2011

Recovery Week Fails to Launch Well

Today begins the second recovery week in this training cycle and I gotta say, I'm looking forward to it. I love breaking myself down and making it hurt, but I was ready for some easiness. This week is all about lowering the intensity, allowing the body to catch up, stretching things out. Not to say I'll be loafing, but I certainly don't expect to be recovering from runs flat on my back in the living room this week.With that in mind this was a super-easy, very light swim. Being Monday, it was a stroke-focused swim. My stroke count on that 200 hovered around 14-15 a lap. Not wonderful, but not awful. The front end of my stroke feels fine so I think I'm not finishing as strongly as I should be. Always a problem. Always need to remind myself to finish past my hips. Core is feeling stronger and my steady in the water though. I don't think I'm as wiggily as I was a few weeks ago.

Ride Fail Day

Set off from the house for an easy 15.5mi ride. And the front derailuer wouldn't shift from the small ring to the big ring. Curses and other expletives. So I turned right around and we headed to the LBS (Local Bike Shop, remember kids?) for a check-up. This is not the first time this type of problem has shown up on Kratos and I was going to bother the guy until he told me something good.That was easy, he was more than willing to put the bike up on the rack and check it out. Turns out the wire for that part was loose and easy to tighten. Then he started checking other stuff to be sure. "Hmmmm." Oh no. That sounded expensive."You know, this really needs a tune-up. Your tires should be trued and everything should be tightened down. While we're at it, you've got some good chain stretch going on and that should be replaced soon. I could do it during the tune-up. But the cassette (the gears in the back) is probably worn to match the chain at this point because they are so old. So a new chain might not ride well on this cassette. It should be replaced too."Damn.So now an appointment is made for next Thursday to drop the bike off and he'll tune it up, switch the chain out, and switch the cassette out too. Since the bike is set up to be a cyclecross bike the gearing is not race ideal, which I knew but wasn't worried about because I'm not that fast. However, since the cassette needs to be replaced anyway I'm going to let him talk me in to a more race-focused gearing. To help that, Cycle Dirtbag, my Official Mainland Bike Parts Dealer, is going to send me his front gears from his bike that he switched out and doesn't need. He bought gears better for him, but the ones he took off would be better for me. Saving me some (a bunch of) money and making my rpms more efficient.Luckily, I just spent half of my board money on aerobars. And registered for a for-fun race this weekend. Both expenses I wish I had back. He's also going to take off the top brake levers too so I can install the aerobars when they come in. Hopefully my seat is ok with an aero position, or I'll have to replace that at some point soon too. Leaning over in aero changes where...pressure is.Oh yeah, and while he was giving the bike the once-over he grabbed my pedal crank and the damn thing wiggled! Like it was loose. "Uh, that's not good. I'll tighten that up for you so it doesn't come off." Yeah, thanks, you do that. So lots of bike money going out next week, but it'll be steps closer to a better racer after this.As if that wasn't enough...*Injury Report*I stumbled right off the sidewalk today at school and tried to sprain my ankle. Don't think I did, no swelling, but it is sore now. Stole ice from the school nurse and have been teaching with one shoe on while I iced my ankle. So pissed when it happened, that fear-pissed, you know? That, "Crap, I have a non-refundable race this weekend and I may have just hurt myself," fear-pissed. Think I'm ok. Recovery week, lots of ice, should be fine. No loss of flexibility so far, no swelling, just tenderness.Dirtbag Klutz.

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